Displaced in Time
by Opinionated Asmodeus
Summary: A single error sends Shimazu Toyohisa nearly one hundred years into the past where youkai still exist, and then there's the strange Miko who can relate, only she's from five hundred years into the future.
1. Song of the Caged Bird

The wrong door had opened, Murasaki realized far too late as Shimazu Toyohisa was pulled through a door made of old wooden beams with ivy curled around it. He glanced down at the page on his clipboard and scowled at the singular error that had thrown off his game with Easy. If she found out about this she would hold it over his head for all of eternity. Instead of sending the warrior off to another world where he was collecting Drifters very much like him, he had sent the warrior nearly a hundred years into the past of his own nation.

It was done. There was no correcting this egregious error now.

Murasaki sighed and put Toyohisa's file away as another appeared in his hall.

 _Displaced in Time_

She had gotten lost on her way back to the well, muttering all the while about InuYasha's selfish and rather inappropriate demand for her to change out of the Miko garb. Just because she _might_ be Kikyou's reincarnation did not mean that she actually was Kikyou. She was Kagome! And InuYasha couldn't demand that she change her clothes just because he was uncomfortable with how she looked.

Not only that, he had insulted every little thing about her, from the way that she smelled to how she couldn't use a bow and arrow after having just touched one for the first time in her life! She didn't ask for any of this!

So wrapped up in her thoughts she tripped over something in her path and fell forwards with a shriek. The thing groaned as she landed on it and made an effort to shift, and she very quickly realized that it was a person.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," she cried out as she scrambled off of the person, a man who groaned again and finally managed to flip over. There was an obscene amount of blood on him, as if he had just come from a battle, but most of it was his, she realized, as she noticed that blood was pooling under him.

"Must not be hell then," the man bit out with a pained grin, his words making absolutely no sense to her. Did he think he was dead? Well, he would be soon if she didn't do something, anything.

She was a Miko, and a Miko should be able to use their reiki to heal injuries. Kagome wasn't entirely certain of how she could do this, but she was going to try. She was going to do this. Forcing down her uncertainty she leaned over the man, the samurai she absently noted when she noticed the wickedly long blade he clung to with one hand, and gently pressed her hands to his chest. "Please let this work." She closed her eyes and bit at the inside of her lower lip as she focused on using her reiki to heal him.

"What are you—Your hands are glowing…" The samurai was still conscious, thankfully, and sounded about as confused as she expected.

Kagome cracked open an eye and found that her hands were indeed glowing a soft pink-white that had spread to the samurai. "O-oh! It's working!" A relieved smile formed on her face and she opened both eyes to watch as her power bent to her will.

"You're a Miko." It wasn't a question. No, the samurai seemed to know exactly what she was, yet there was no mention of Kikyou.

"Not a very good one according to InuYasha," she admitted bitterly and looked away from the warrior. She jumped slightly when a large, calloused hand settled over hers and looked back at him to find his piercing gray eyes fixed on her, his mouth drawn into a frown.

"You're saving my life, Miko-sama, that's more than good enough for me." His expression was steely, as was his voice, and Kagome couldn't help but be shaken by his words.

InuYasha had no problems in letting her know that he found her lacking in every aspect, yet this complete stranger had no higher expectations of her. He was in fact satisfied with her as she was, and she found that comforting.

The glow of her reiki faded as it found no more wounds to be healed and she pulled away with a weak smile. "Thank you. I needed to hear that," she said gratefully as the samurai sat up. "And my name is Kagome. Higurashi Kagome."

He shifted, faster than someone who was at death's door mere moments ago should be capable of, and prostrated himself before her, in spite of the fact that he was in a pool of his own blood. "It is I who should be thanking you, Higurashi-sama. I, Shimazu Toyohisa, owe you my life. This InuYasha you speak of is a fool for making you think so lowly of yourself."

Kagome had been ready to protest the position Toyohisa had put himself in, but his words stopped her cold and she blinked down at the sight of him. Warm tears pricked at her eyes and she put a hand over her mouth as her already stirred emotions bubbled up. Before she could even stop herself she gave a choked sob and in the very next instant she was being pulled to Toyohisa's chest, his arms tightly wound around her.

"I'm sorry that my words have upset you, Higurashi-sama. It was not my intention," Toyohisa breathed into her ear as he pressed a hand to the small of her back and rubbed soothing circles there.

Kagome couldn't find the words to reassure him that it wasn't his fault, not entirely. He'd been much too kind and it had simply triggered her into this state. She spent the next few minutes crying into his neck, and he simply let her while he kept silent and continued to rub her back. After her tears dried and her sobs finally stopped she pulled away, her gaze downcast while her cheeks flushed with her embarrassment. "I'm so-"

Toyohisa silenced her with a finger against her lips then slipped his hand under her chin and tilted her head up. Once she was looking at him he gave a subdued smile and pulled his hand away. "You have nothing to apologize for, Milady. It was I who upset you."

She gave a hard shake of her head and balled her hands into the material of her hakama. "I was already upset when I found you, Shimazu-san. Hearing such nice things from you just happened to be the trigger to make me break down like that, and I think I needed it so that I wouldn't have a worse break down later on. It wouldn't do well for me to have a youkai find me in such a state."

Toyohisa blinked, his expression twisting into another frown. "Youkai? Youkai haven't been around for one hundred years, Higurashi-sama."

Kagome blinked as well and took a better look at Toyohisa. "Shimazu-san, what year is it?" She didn't know why she chose that particular question, but having found herself five hundred years in the past wouldn't have made sense either if he was talking about youkai being gone for a hundred years.

"It's 1600, Higurashi-sama." He sounded so sure of it, and her heart sank as she registered the answer.

"Shimazu-san, it's 1497…"

 _Displaced in Time_

There was no dishonesty in Kagome's face as she broke the news to him. There was a deep sadness, though, and even more was understanding. "H-how?"

"In your case, I honestly don't know. I doubt you climbed out of the Bone-Eater's Well in your state, and I can't even be certain it was how you got here considering it pulled **me** here from 1997." He didn't remember a well of any sort, and it seemed like the circumstances in how they got here, though similar, were incredibly different. She was even more out of place than he was.

"What part of Japan are we in?" He had to know that much, considering he had last been at Sekigahara.

"Um… We're in Edo. Why?" Kagome's brows furrowed slightly with her question and she tilted her head to one side.

"I was at Sekigahara," he admitted in a harsh whisper. So far. How had he… That white hallway with the doors and that strange man at the desk! "I was giving my uncle time to escape from Tokugawa's forces so he could make it back to Satsuma."

Kagome's expression shifted to one of realization and she stared at him with wide eyes, her mouth parted slightly in her shock. "Wait…you're from _**the**_ Shimazu clan?!" Her gaze left his face and shifted down to the crests stitched into his karuta sashinuki style kote. "He really is…"

Toyohisa blinked at her then arched a brow at her now stunned expression. Yes, he really was from _**the**_ Shimazu clan. He wouldn't claim otherwise. "Can you tell me if my uncle made it back to Satsuma?" If she knew of his clan like it seemed and if she was from nearly four hundred years after the Battle at Sekigahara…

"I'd know if I had my history book!" A what? The confusion must have been evident on his face because she gave a sigh and shook her head. She looked ready to say something when her expression lit up and she shot up. "I can show you! I just have to go back through the well and…. Oh no, my family must be worried about me!"

Toyohisa climbed to his feet, ignoring the way his legs tingled, and picked up his nodachi to sheathe it. "What are you going on about?"

Kagome must not have heard him because she was too busy looking around before she quite literally bounced on the spot. "It's that way!" And then she took off.

Toyohisa frowned, unsure of what might have gotten the Miko so excited, and jogged after her. It became evident after a few minutes and the forest opened up into a field where there sat a well. **The** well that Kagome had made mention of.

Kagome made a beeline for the structure and started to climb onto the lip of it, much to his surprise and shock. And then she jumped down into it.

Without even giving it a thought he raced over to the well and vaulted over the lip of it just as a bright glow lit the bottom. He closed his eyes against the glow and expected everything to end, but the sensation of falling turned into the sensation of floating. He landed quite gently after time seemed to stretch on forever, and dared to crack open his eyes.

"Shimazu-san?" Kagome stared up at him with wide, disbelieving eyes, her features barely distinguishable in the darkness. When did it get dark out? It was at least midday when they jumped down the well.

"How did it get so dark?" Toyohisa craned his neck to look up, and instead of stars in the sky he could make out wooden beams. He looked back down at Kagome and for the first time noted that the top of her head barely reached his shoulder. And that there was barely any room in the well for both of them.

"We're in my time, Shimazu-san, and it's dark because we built a well-house over the Bone-Eater's Well. Could you possibly get us out of here?" Kagome shifted against him as she fidgeted, her gaze flicking away from his as she turned her head just slightly. Even though he couldn't really see it, he knew that she was blushing.

"Of course, Higurashi-sama, hold on." He wrapped his arms around her and gave her enough time to twist her fingers into the fabric of his shitagi before her leapt upwards. They easily cleared the lip of the well and he could see what she was talking about when they landed. It was akin to a little house that covered the well.

The doors to the well-house suddenly opened and light flooded in, revealing two figures standing there. Kagome gave a surprised gasp then pulled herself free of his embrace and rushed over to them, having obviously recognized them. "Souta! Jii-chan! I'm so happy to see you!"

"Whoa, Nee-chan, is that blood?" The boy, Souta, asked as he took in Kagome's state. Souta looked from the Miko to where he stood, uncertain of what to do, and the boy's eyes widened. "Oh cool! Who is that?"

* * *

Toyohisa's head hurt as he absorbed the sights, sounds and smells from the future, along with what snippets of information he could gather from Kagome's family. They had managed to relocate to the house where he met the third and final member of Kagome's immediate family, her mother.

The Lady Higurashi had taken one look at them both and smiled, her relief palpable. "I won't pester you with all sorts of questions, Kagome, since you look like death warmed over, but I will ask that you introduce this young man."

Kagome fidgeted with the hem of her haori sleeves and looked down at the floor, her entire posture rife with nervousness. "Okaa-san, this is Shimazu Toyohisa. Shimazu-san, this is my Okaa-san."

"It is an honor to meet you, Higurashi-dono," Toyohisa exclaimed with a deep, formal bow.

"And you too, Shimazu-san," Lady Higurashi returned with a polite bow of her own. "Run along upstairs, Kagome, while I ask Shimazu-san a few questions." There was an odd inflection to the Lady's voice, one that sent a shiver up Toyohisa's spine.

"Hai, Okaa-san," Kagome uttered softly and went up the stairs after mouthing a 'Good luck' in his direction.

Once Kagome had vanished up the stairs the Lady Higurashi's expression became sharp and she scrutinized him for a moment. "I don't know what happened to my daughter on the other side of that well, Shimazu-san, and I hope you can answer my questions satisfactorily. How did you meet Kagome?"

"To start, I am from a different time than the one that the well leads to, Higurashi-dono. I was grievously wounded at Sekigahara in the year 1600 and when I wandered away from the battlefield I was taken to a strange white hall with many doors. There was a man in that hall, but he wouldn't answer my questions and he wouldn't send me back." Toyohisa clenched his hands into fists and sharply looked away for a moment, his lips pressing together into a frown. When he returned his gaze to Lady Higurashi he noticed that her expression had softened. "When I came back into consciousness Higurashi-sama had tripped over me. She healed my wounds and we talked for a bit. She explained to me that the year was 1497 and when I asked her about Sekigahara she mentioned something about a…. She called it a book?"

"A collection of papers bound together with the information stored on the pages," Lady Higurashi helpfully supplied with a warm smile. "Her history book, perhaps?"

Toyohisa brushed aside the explanation for now and gave a nod. "She called it that and said she could show it to me instead. Afterwards we came through the well. She, uh, jumped in first and I followed, fearing for her life."

"I see," Lady Higurashi said with a thoughtful tone. "How old are you, Shimazu-san?"

Toyohisa blinked, taken aback by the question, but he was going to answer nonetheless. "I am thirty, Higurashi-dono."

Lady Higurashi frowned at that and folded an arm over her chest, her brows furrowing slightly. She did not like that answer at all. "And what are your intentions towards Kagome?"

He _really_ did not like how she asked that question. "I owe Higurashi-sama my life, and as I have nowhere to go back to I would pledge my life to hers. I do not believe in harming a woman and would **never** force myself upon her or any other woman. I would sooner cut my belly open."

"Kagome is only **fifteen** , Shimazu-san, half _your_ age. Things are very different here in the future, and it is generally unacceptable for a girl to marry so young. Things were much different in your time, let alone the time the well goes to, and when she has to go back…" Lady Higurashi's voice cracked slightly and for one moment she looked utterly broken. It was gone in the blink of an eye and she straightened her posture, her arms going to her side. "I would rather someone as honorable as you are be the one to care for Kagome."

 _Displaced in Time_

As much as she had wanted to take a long and relaxing bath, Kagome opted for the shower instead. She did make sure to scrub every inch of herself clean, and she washed her hair twice, so only twenty minutes had passed by the time she finished with her shower. She had just wrapped herself up in a towel and grabbed one for her hair when her mother entered the bathroom.

"Done already, Kagome? That's unusual," Mama commented teasingly. "Is it because of Shimazu-san?"

Kagome blushed and looked away from her mother as she patted the moisture out of her hair. "I promised to look up some information for him."

"About Sekigahara?" Kagome faltered slightly as the question left her mother and she snapped her gaze back to her mother's as her mouth dropped open. "I _did_ ask him a few things, and he was incredibly honest. I was only concerned for you, and I can rest easy knowing that he'll be traveling with you when you go back through the well."

"I don't want to go back there, Mama," Kagome whimpered out, the towel for her hair dropping from her hands. Her mother rushed over to her and wrapped her in her arms just as her knees buckled.

"Oh, Kagome. I knew this day would come, but I never imagined it to be like this," her mother said soothingly and helped Kagome out of the bathroom. "Come now, let's get you dressed and we can talk."

* * *

"M-m-marriage?! But I'm too young!" Kagome was sure her voice echoed well throughout the house, but that wasn't important right now. What was important was that her mother was talking about marriage.

Kagome sank down onto her bed and buried her face into her hands as it turned a bright red. Her mother sighed and sat down next to her, a hand going to her shoulder. "I'm not talking about right away, Kagome, but it is something you will need to consider when you go back through the well."

"But I-"

"No, Kagome. As much as it pains me to say this, going back is unavoidable. I wish you didn't have to, but I've known about this for a long time and I had to make my peace with this when you inevitably fell down the well." Her mother lifted her hand to Kagome's face and gently stroked her cheek then brushed a few damp locks of hair behind her ear. "Now dry your hair and I'll go start on oden for dinner."

Normally she would have perked up at the mention of her favorite food, but with everything seemingly crashing down around her she gave her mother an empty smile. Once she was left alone in her room, she flopped back onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling. Why did she have to go back? Why would she have to get…

"You really should dry your hair, Kagome-chan," an incredibly familiar voice drawled from the direction of her window, startling her out of her thoughts.

With her heart in her throat she sat up and blinked at the sight of a man who looked almost exactly like Toyohisa, with the addition of modern clothes and some vividly crimson stripes slashing across his cheek bones, perched on the sill of her open window. He flashed her a roguish grin, revealing inhumanly sharp canines, and had the audacity to wave.


	2. Better Than I Know Myself

Kagome stared at the lookalike for possibly several minutes while he just remained perched in her window, silent and waiting. He wasn't going away, from the look of it. "Shimazu-san…?" Her voice wavered slightly, and _Toyohisa_ tilted his head slightly in response, his eyes lit up with amusement.

"The one and the same, Kagome-chan. Well, after five hundred years, and an Inu Daiyoukai, so maybe not the _same_." _Toyohisa_ rocked forwards and dismounted from the window sill in one smooth motion, landing by her bed in a half crouch. Now that he wasn't crammed into window she could make out his clothes; blue jeans, a dark red shirt with splashes of gold petals across it, a black leather jacket and a pair of black combat boots.

Kagome could only blink at that, not really knowing what to make of the information she was being given, let alone that he was referring to her in an overly familiar manner. Her cheeks warmed faintly and she looked away from the Inu Daiyoukai. Why would he… Did that mean what she thought it did?

"I know that look, Kagome-chan," _Toyohisa_ said with a sigh and he sat down next to her on the bed. "I can't really say anything about how things happened, and especially not when. Something about changing history and impacting the present."

Her blush faded and she looked back at him, her lips pursed into a faint frown. "Then why risk showing yourself to me?"

"Hmm… because me being here, talking to you like this has _already_ happened. I was told by a very credible source that you'd need a nudge." The smile he gave her was sincere, and there was so much affection in his gaze, for _her_ , that it made her stomach churn in that way described as having butterflies in it. "You have nothing to fear from my human self, Kagome-chan. He won't force you to do anything you **don't** want to do… apart from being overly protective and trying to keep you out of the battles that will happen."

This _pep talk_ wasn't doing much to help her relax or ease her fears about the whole marriage thing, but she knew she could trust what the Inu Daiyoukai was telling her. It was a small comfort in the grand scheme of things. There was one thing that she was curious about though, and thought it couldn't hurt to ask. "If you're here in the present-"

"Your future self is here too," he answered with a lopsided grin. "Now, I can't stay for much longer, and you'll have to get going soon so remember; trust in yourself, follow your heart and most importantly just be yourself."

Kagome blinked and then he was gone, the only evidence that he'd been there was that her window was still open. With a faint frown, and her thoughts far more muddled than before, she got up and shut the window. "Be myself…" Those words were so simple, yet they made such an impact, much like the kind words Toyohisa had given her when she had been healing him. That she was saving him was more than good enough for him.

"He still knows just what to say," she said softly, tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. She wiped them away and smiled to herself, a warmth bubbling through her. Turning around, she was startled to find that something had been left on her bed, a black backpack with a white square of paper pinned to it. As she approached the bag on her bed with a modicum of confusion, she could make out three words scrawled out on the paper in a delicate hand. "Use these well?"

Curiosity drove her to open the bag, and she found inside of it a set of Miko garments along with a set of armor and clothes that were a perfect replica of what she had found Toyohisa in. A bit puzzled as to why these were left behind, she frowned as she pulled out the white haori and red hakama meant for her. Should she wear them?

InuYasha wouldn't like it, but it didn't matter what the Inu Hanyou thought. Determined to take Toyohisa's words to heart, she shed her modern clothes and donned the garments appropriate for a Miko. Kagome even tied back her hair like before, though only after she had finished drying it, then gathered up the armor and clothes meant for Toyohisa, along with the backpack, and left her bedroom.

She went downstairs to find her brother and grandfather sitting at the table, whispering conspiratorially to one another. From the scents coming out of the kitchen, she knew where her mother was, but she frowned when she didn't see the time displaced Toyohisa. "Where is Shimazu-san?"

"Your _boyfriend_ is still in the shower, Nee-chan," Souta teased, only for her grandfather to smack him on the back of the head. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"The nature of Kagome's relationship with Shimazu-san is not something to make light of, Souta," their grandfather admonished him with a scowl. "Your sister did a remarkable thing in saving Shimazu-san's life, for which he now owes her. How they choose to approach the matter and resolve it is between them."

"Jii-chan…" Kagome gave the old priest a thankful smile then flicked her gaze to Souta. "You know, Souta, I don't make fun of you when you bring Hitomi-chan over." Her smile sharpened into a grin as Souta went a bright red and stuttered out an apology. With that taken care of, she shifted the bundle of clothes and armor in her grasp and went in search of the bathroom that Toyohisa was in.

 _Displaced in Time_

Toyohisa frowned as the hot water of what was called a shower rained down over him, not so much because the concept of indoor plumbing was something he couldn't comprehend, but because he was stuck on the conversation he'd had with Lady Higurashi. Kagome's age wasn't bothersome in the slightest, but it was the fact that things were so very different here, and that what he was asking wasn't done anymore. Sure, Lady Higurashi had essentially given her blessing and had reassured him that she would speak to Kagome concerning the matter, but there was no place for him here in the future. Despite how certain Lady Higurashi was that they would have to go back through the well, he had no certainty that Kagome would want to go back at all. Never mind his intentions.

He was a damn fool. Pinning all his hopes on a girl, still a child in her time, when he had nothing else left to turn to. He had no home to go back to and he was no better than a ronin.

Turning the water off, albeit a bit awkwardly, he bit back a sigh as he stepped out of the shower and onto the terry cloth mat that had been laid down. Toyohisa frowned again and picked up the towel he was supposed to dry off with. It was soft and unlike anything he knew from his own time, and as he swiped it over his body he found that it absorbed almost all of the water clinging to his skin. This was certainly handy.

There came a soft knock from the door, making him pause and blink. "Shimazu-san?" Kagome's unmistakable voice, slightly muffled by the door, called out. "I'm leaving some clean clothes for you out in the hall."

There came a soft thunk as something weighty and more than clothes was set down outside of the door. He waited to hear her footsteps retreating before he opened the door and peered down at an exact replica of the armor and clothes in a haphazard pile behind him. Just where had she managed to get these on such short notice?

Maybe he was wrong.

Dried and dressed in a matter of minutes, Toyohisa frowned at the bloody and dirt-stained mess left on the bathroom floor. Lady Higurashi had insisted he leave it there for her to take care of when she had showed him to the bathroom to begin with. With this clean set Kagome had managed to provide for him, he could do as her mother had asked.

He pushed the matter out of his mind and made his way back to the foyer, where he came across Kagome waiting for him. She was dressed as she was before, but the lack of blood and dirt on her clothes made it evident that she had changed too. A shy smile flitted across her face as she caught sight of him, and he knew for sure that he'd been wrong in his assumption. "Higurashi-sama?"

"We should talk, Shimazu-san," Kagome said softly and beckoned for him to follow her into the room off to the right of the foyer. "And I suppose you should call me Kagome."

The room was furnished with strange items, all of which were unfamiliar. There was a black box sitting up on a strange pedestal, the front of it darkly reflecting the room, Kagome and himself. His gaze lingered on it for a moment and then he settled it back onto the young Miko. "Then I should insist that you call me Toyohisa, Kagome-sama."

"It's only fair, Toyohisa-san. Any chance I could convince you to drop the sama?" Her smile, though still shy, was warm and made her look all the more pretty. Had he not been informed of her age, he would have thought her to be older.

"If it makes you uncomfortable, then yes, I will drop the sama." Even though he thought it was a level of respect that she deserved to be shown. Miko were held in high regards for their abilities, and that whoever this InuYasha was had managed to make her feel so undervalued made him hate this person responsible for how she felt. "You wanted to talk, Kagome-san?"

"Yes… About the, uh, marriage thing…" She grew noticeably nervous, and even fidgeted with her sleeves while a pale pink dusted her cheeks and the bridge of her nose as she looked away from him. "Can we take this one step at a time?"

Toyohisa couldn't help but smile, relief flooding through him at Kagome's question. His fears that she would reject him were finally laid to rest, as what she was asking him left room for hope. "Absolutely, Kagome-san."

She stopped fidgeting with her sleeves and looked back up at him, her nervousness waning. Another, warmer smile lit up her face and her blush darkened a bit further. "Thank you, Toyohisa-san, for being so understanding."

He stepped closer to her, and though she was surprised she didn't move away, even letting him curl a couple of fingers under her chin. He traced the line of her jaw with his thumb, taking in the way she leaned in to the touch with a smile then pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You gave me back my life and you're giving me a purpose to live for, Kagome-san. I had nothing to look forward to, no family to go back to, so thank you." He pulled away with a smile and noted that her blush hadn't faded any.

"I-we should go see if dinner is ready," Kagome near stammered out and turned away sharply.

Toyohisa's smile twisted into a grin as he followed after the young Miko, keeping pace so that he was only a few steps behind her. They passed through the foyer and went back into a setting he was more familiar with, a place to eat. Set out on the low table was a large bowl with what appeared to be a soup of sorts. The most prominent smells coming from the bowl was that of eggs and fish, but he didn't recognize it.

"The oden smells delicious, Okaa-san," Kagome commented as she took a seat on the pillow on the right side of the table. At the far end, taking the place of the head of the table, was her grandfather, and seated next to him, opposite of Kagome, was her brother.

Toyohisa knelt down beside Kagome, filling the spot between her and her grandfather, and took the bowl that was passed to him by Lady Higurashi. He followed Kagome's example and ladled some of the oden into his bowl then picked up his chopsticks. "Itadakimasu," he murmured under his breath before sampling some of the daikon radish.

"How is it, Shimazu-san?" Lady Higurashi asked between delicate bites of her own food. "Did they have oden in your time?"

"We didn't have something like this, but it is good," Toyohisa answered then bit into what turned out to be a boiled egg. Next to him Kagome was inhaling her food, like she hadn't eaten in ages, which surprised him. "Kagome-san?"

"Don't mind her. She happens to love oden," Lady Higurashi commented with a smile and sent him a knowing look. She had caught the difference in the way he had addressed her daughter.

Toyohisa went to take a bite of something else when the shouji door behind him and Kagome slammed open and everyone near froze. He glanced over his shoulder at the intruder, his eyes narrowed, and noticed Kagome doing the same. The recognition in her face was as clear as day, so he took in the intruder's appearance with a suspicious scowl. Stark silver-white hair, golden eyes and a pair of…dog ears on top of his head? "Tell me something, Kagome-san. Is that InuYasha?"

"Who th' fuck's asking?" The dog-eared intruder growled out, his golden gaze assessing Toyohisa. He sneered after a moment and slid his gaze on to Kagome who hadn't moved an inch. "Damn you…. Whoever said you could just go home whenever you feel like it?"

Oh, this was definitely him. Toyohisa calmly put his bowl and chopsticks down then turned as he rose from the table to face InuYasha. "Shimazu Toyohisa, and I do not like the way you are addressing my intended."

InuYasha blinked at that, looked from Toyohisa to Kagome and back then he laughed. "Your intended? That's rich. Who'd want a defective bit-"

Toyohisa lunged forwards and grabbed InuYasha by his throat. He took pleasure in the mixed expression of surprise and shock on the Inu Hanyou's throat and bared his teeth with a snarl. "You will not speak about Kagome like that ever again, you damn dog! She is perfect as she is, and I am happy to call her my intended!" He tightened his grip around InuYasha's throat then threw the Inu Hanyou out into the foyer. He went to step out into the foyer, only to be stopped by Kagome grabbing his arm.

"He isn't worth it, Toyohisa-san," Kagome bit out tearfully and glared at the wheezing InuYasha as he stood back up. "Osuwari!"

Toyohisa had been ready to argue, but was instead surprised at the effect that word leaving Kagome's mouth had. The beads that InuYasha wore glowed with a white light and he fell over face first into the floor with enough force to make a loud thud. "How did you do that?"

"Back in Sengoku Jidai there is an elderly Miko named Kaede. She put the beads of subjugation on InuYasha when he tried to kill me and told me to pick a word to stop him. I chose _osuwari_." And the beads lit up again, forcing InuYasha's face back into the ground. "It only works for me, however, so we can't leave him to his own devices."

"Interesting… the dog comes with a leash," Toyohisa mused as he coldly glared down at InuYasha's prone form. He ignored the weak growl the Inu Hanyou sent his way and turned towards Kagome. There were tears still in her eyes and a few tracks running down her cheeks. The sight made his anger and hatred towards InuYasha burn even hotter, and as much as he wanted to send the Hanyou's soul to hell he knew that Kagome was right. Killing him would have no meaning. "You're a far better person than I am, Kagome-san, and much kinder."

"She might be, but I'm not," Lady Higurashi exclaimed as she stood up. She gave InuYasha a furious glare and put her hands on her hips. "How dare you come into our home and insult my daughter! I don't want to see you here ever again or I _will_ ask Shimazu-san to take care of you!"

InuYasha gave a wheezing growl but otherwise didn't make any threatening moves. He slowly pushed himself up and gave them all a sullen glare, his ears flattened against his hair, before turning and exiting the house.

"We should go too," Kagome forced out as she watched the retreating Hanyou, her gaze distrustful. She used her sleeve to dry her tears then stepped out into the foyer where she picked up a black bag and slung in over her shoulder.

Toyohisa followed after her after sharing a look with Lady Higurashi, and grabbed up his swords and tanegashima from where they rested in the corner. "We will try to come back soon, Higurashi-dono," he called over his shoulder, and hoped that he would be able to keep to those words.

 _Displaced in Time_

She could sense that Toyohisa was only two steps behind her, and he was armed with his weapons, so she kept her gaze on the foul mouthed Hanyou ahead of her. "There's a lot more that I'll have to explain to you, Toyohisa-san, about how and why I ended up in Sengoku Jidai. Once we're on the other side of the well, we can go to Kaede-san's village and talk there. She'll be able to help fill in the gaps."

InuYasha went oddly stiff ahead of her and paused in the entryway to the well-house. He looked back at them with a scowl, his nose wrinkling.

"Something to say, dog?" Toyohisa growled out, having also noticed InuYasha's behavior. She frowned faintly at the samurai's hostile tone, but it was every bit deserved given what had just happened.

"Something attacked the village," InuYasha spat out and looked away. "Some Oni looking for the Shikon no Kakera. She used some weird shit I couldn't see."

Kagome's frowned deepened and she brought the pouch she wore around her neck out from under her haori. "So you came here looking for my shard, is that it?" With a glance back at Toyohisa she could see that he was confused. "It's part of what I need to explain, Toyohisa-san. The simple explanation would be that youkai and men alike are after the Shikon no Tama, which I accidentally broke, because it can grant them power and a wish. The legend goes that there is only one correct wish that will make the jewel disappear, and it has to be pure otherwise the jewel gets tainted and filled with malice."

"The hell are you telling him for?! He could be after the jewel for all you know!" InuYasha gave Toyohisa a distrustful glare, looking rather petulant as he did so.

"The Shimazu have no need to rely on things like the Shikon no Tama for power. We will take what we want by our own hands or die trying, it is the Shimazu way," Toyohisa retorted icily as he strode past Kagome and approached InuYasha. "My life is to Kagome's, and I would sooner die than abandon her," he hissed out at the Hanyou before moving around him to enter the well-house.

"Toyohisa will be traveling with me, InuYasha, whether you like it or not, and we have agreed to work towards marriage, so yes, he is going to be my husband." Kagome couldn't help the faint blush that tinged her cheeks as she spoke, but she kept her gaze locked on to InuYasha's. "It would be in your best interest to not insult or attack either of us, because next time I might not stop my future husband from killing you." With that said, she too went around the Hanyou and stepped into the well-house, only to find Toyohisa with his nodachi drawn and looking around suspiciously. Suspended in the air in front of him from the mouth of the well was a mass of hair, poised to attack. "Toyohisa! In front of you! It's coming from the well!"


	3. Shine

Toyohisa moved, trusting in Kagome's instruction even though his foe was invisible, and swung his blade over the mouth of the well. There was a very soft, nearly silent noise as something hit the ground at his feet and he squinted down at it. He was just barely able to make out the shape of it, though it was as if he were looking at it through an incredibly hazy piece of glass. "What is that?"

Kagome came up by his side and crouched down to observe the thing, her face scrunching up with confusion. "Hair?"

"So Kaede-baa-baa was right, you can see it," InuYasha exclaimed from behind them. The Hanyou thankfully hung back, a check from his peripheral revealing that InuYasha was eying him warily. "That stuff can slice through humans easily," he warned.

Toyohisa prodded at the hazy mass with his nodachi and scowled. "Do you see anymore of it, Kagome-san?" He asked with a sideward glance at the Miko. She was looking right at him with a thoughtful frown.

"You can see it too?" There was a faint uncertainty in her voice, and surprise.

"Just barely," Toyohisa half-muttered and sheathed his blade. He offered his hand to help Kagome up, which she took with a grateful smile.

"Well, I don't see anymore, and it seemed to be coming from inside the well." She stepped closer to the well and he followed beside her, apprehensive of her getting caught in an attack. She thankfully exercised caution as she peered down into the well, mouth drawn into a frown. "It's empty, but there could be more on the other side."

"Then I should go through first and-what are you doing?" Toyohisa watched with incredulity as Kagome threw a leg over the lip of the well then grabbed her around the waist to prevent her from continuing with her obvious attempt to jump down into the well.

Instead of fighting him, Kagome leaned her head back, so that it touched against his karuta sashinuki style kote and looked up at him from that awkward angle. "Going through the well." She gave a languid blink of her eyes then tilted her head just slightly, a brow arching. "With you?"

From behind him InuYasha snickered his amusement while Toyohisa could only sigh. Now wasn't the time to start an argument, so he picked Kagome up and shifted her so that he held her with one arm hooked under her legs and the other supporting her back. "Wait a few minutes and then follow," he called back to the Inu Hanyou then leapt into the well.

The familiar soft glow greeted them, and this time it seemed like it went by quicker. He looked up as his feet touched the ground and a darkening sky was above them. He frowned and searched for any sign of the hair, but saw nothing to indicate its presence.

"It's clear," Kagome confirmed for him and shifted slightly in his grasp to put an arm around his neck.

"We should get moving then." Toyohisa propelled them out of the well and landed just outside of it, pausing as something prickled at his senses.

"There's hair everywhere," Kagome gasped out as she got a good look at the area surrounding the well.

"It makes no difference if you can see it or not," came a voice from the direction of the forest. Perfectly balanced on a razor thin strand of hair was what looked like a human girl. She wore a traditional kunoichi's tunic without the back and sleeves, and it stopped at her mid thigh. Tied around her waist was a bright yellow sash and tucked into it was a wakizashi. "Now give me the Shikon no Tama!"

"Hold on tight, Kagome," Toyohisa whispered and turned to push off without any further warning, having to rely on his sixth sense to avoid the strands of hair. While he still couldn't see them, they disrupted the flow of the air just slightly enough that he could tell when they were in the way, and where they were located.

"Aren't we going to fight her?" There was a moderate amount of confusion in Kagome's voice and he could feel the slight shift she made to look up at him.

"It goes against my code to fight a woman, even if they happen to be a youkai, and you do not belong on the battlefield." He could tell by the way that she tensed up that she was displeased with his opinion, and displeased she would have to be. He would do his damnedest to make sure she did not have to set foot onto a battlefield.

"I can live with your code, Toyohisa, but you will not stop me from fighting! Especially when our opponent is a woman like me! She will not stop coming after us until she gets what she wants, and I cannot let her get her hands on the jewel shard!" Kagome used her arm around his neck as leverage to pull herself up in his grasp and looked over his shoulder. "She's not chasing after us?" The Miko settled back into his arms and looked ahead of them with a frown. Her expression quickly twisted into one of far when she saw what was ahead of them where the field met the forest. "Stop! There's too many of them!"

Hundreds of hairs criss-crossed to form a net that would cut them into tiny pieces was suspended above the ground, blocking their way into the forest. He stopped just a few feet short of the net and frowned as he scrutinized the area. The strands were much harder to make out, but he could see where they were by finding the slight distortions they appeared as to him. From what he could tell, the net continued on both ways.

"The hell are you two doing all the way over there?"

Toyohisa twisted around to see InuYasha jump clear of the well, and that the youkai girl was nowhere to be seen. For good reason too. The wire-like razor sharp hairs encircled InuYasha's limbs and dragged him in the direction the youkai girl had been.

"Gah! Fuckin' hell, not again!" The Inu Hanyou tried to tear at the hairs only for more to bind up his hands.

As much as he hated InuYasha, Toyohisa couldn't bear to see him meet his end like this. "Wait here," he gently instructed Kagome as he set her down.

 _Displaced in Time_

Now that he didn't have her weight slowing him down, Kagome watched in near disbelief as Toyohisa dashed across the field and reached InuYasha in a matter of seconds with his nodachi drawn. He cut through the hairs keeping the Inu Hanyou captive with a precision and speed that she could barely keep track of. With her attention diverted, she failed to notice the presence of the youkai girl appear behind her.

"What lovely hair you have, though it isn't as pretty as that Hanyou's over there," the youkai girl exclaimed as she grabbed Kagome by her hair, her fingers twisting through it. "Scream if you like, girl. You'll be dead before they can get to you!"

Kagome bit down on her lower lip to keep from crying out as the youkai pulled on her hair, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes from the pain. Instead of reacting how the youkai wanted her to, she shot the creature a venomous glare. "If it's the jewel you're after, you won't find it on me," she hissed out as the youkai patted her down for the pouch that held the shard. Well, she wouldn't find it on Kagome. Not anymore.

"What did you do with it?!" The grasp on her hair tightened even more, and her vision blurred, but she could still make out Toyohisa as he turned around to check on her.

The look of shock and terror on his face was heartbreaking, yet Kagome had no intention of dying today. Instead, she smiled and turned, grabbing onto the youkai girl to force her reiki into her. Only this time it was being used with the intent to purify instead of healing. "You know I'm a Miko, right?"

The youkai girl was engulfed by a lilac hued light, but not only that, the purifying reiki travelled along a few particular strands of the creature's hair all the way back to its source. Back at the youkai's nest, which would eventually dissolve and remain undiscovered, a red comb hidden inside of a skull disintegrated, and with it so too did the youkai's body.

"Kagome!" She turned to find Toyohisa racing up to her, his sword abandoned over by InuYasha in his haste to reach her as quickly as possible. In the blink of an eye he swept her up into his arms before he even managed to stop his mad dash, and nearly crushed her to his chest.

"Gah! I'm fine, Toyohisa!" She tried to push away from him, but it was to no avail, his grip like a vice.

"I failed to protect you and it nearly cost you your life," he gritted out and burrowed his face into the crook of her neck.

"Toyohisa…" She spoke his name barely above that of a whisper and let her hands rest flat against his chest. After a moment she slid them up, prying his face away from her neck, and cupped it with a gentle touch. "I'm okay, see?"

"But it's not okay. You shouldn't have-" He was silenced by the delicate press of her thumb against his lips, but his frustration was clear in his eyes.

"I am the **only** person that can locate and purify the Shikon no Kakera, Toyohisa, so there is no way for me to avoid the danger involved in searching for them. I don't like it, but I also can't sit back and watch everyone else get hurt when it's my fault the Shikon no Tama was shattered." Kagome gave a bitter smile and pulled her thumb away from Toyohisa's lips. "It certainly wouldn't hurt if I had a bow and some arrows."

"Lot of good that'd do you when you can't even hit anything!" InuYasha called out from where he stood watching them, arms folded over his chest and his ears twitching with his irritation. "If you two are done having your moment, we need to go back to the village."

"Tch, damn dog," Toyohisa growled out and pulled his face out of Kagome's hands to glare at the Hanyou over his shoulder. "You should be fine to go on ahead of us."

"Yeah, whatever. Don't take too long," InuYasha retorted with a touch of sarcasm then turned and headed for the edge of the forest on the opposite side of the field.

"Even though he's beyond rude and an overbearing jerk he is right, I can't hit anything yet," Kagome admitted with a faint blush and brought her hands down to rest against his chest once more. "But it should keep me out of immediate danger, and more importantly not in the middle of the fight. Unless we're attacked by women."

Toyohisa sighed as he returned his gaze to hers, his frustration still very clear in it, but there was also reluctance. "I can see that it is useless to argue the matter further. Just promise me that if a fight becomes too dangerous then you'll run."

Kagome gave a small shake of her head and frowned. "I can't make a promise like that, Toyohisa, not if it means that you would get hurt or killed." Her fingers curled against the supple leather of his armor, palms resting just over the crests stitched into it, and she looked away from him. "I…"

"I understand. I don't like it at all, but I understand where you're coming from." Toyohisa loosened his grasp on her and brought a hand up to turn her face back towards his. He kept his fingers loosely curled under her chin and his thumb traced over her lips delicately before coming to rest against her jaw. With barely any pressure at all he tilted her head up and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. It lasted for the span of a couple heartbeats, and then he pulled back just enough so that their face were only a few inches apart. "We should head to the village now."

Kagome felt her cheeks heat up with a blush and she could only nod since it seemed she had forgotten how to speak. She took a step back as soon as Toyohisa let go of her and pressed a hand to her mouth while the warmth of her blush took over her entire face.

"Oh, and this goes back to you, right?" Toyohisa asked, seemingly oblivious to her state, as he pulled the pouch containing the jewel shard from where she had tucked it under his shitagi. He held it out to her with a smile.

 _Displaced in Time_

"I can't believe you **buried** Kaede-san, InuYasha!" The petite Miko shouted at an unaffected InuYasha while he watched on with the elderly Miko at his side.

"So who might you be, young man?" Kaede asked without taking her gaze away from the unfolding drama. "And who are you to Kagome?"

"Shimazu Toyohisa, and I am to be her husband." Toyohisa watched Kaede from his periphery and took note that the old Miko seemed surprised at this news.

"Really now? You are aware of her circumstances, I hope?" Kaede turned to look at him and she frowned as she took in his appearance. "You have the look of a samurai, but I've not seen armor like that before."

"My circumstances are more like hers, Kaede-sama, in that I am not from this time. I am from one hundred and three years ahead of this time, which is why you do not recognize my armor." He grinned as Kagome forced InuYasha to face plant then turned to properly address Kaede.

"One hundred and three years? That is a considerable amount of time, and your accent…. You must be quite far from what would be your home." Kaede's frown deepened and she looked in the direction he knew the well to be in. "Did you come through the well?"

"I've been through it, but it only connects to her time. The way I got here…" Seemed like it had been the product of a nightmare. "I don't think it's something that could happen again. Anyways, I am indeed very far from what I used to call home. I'm from Satsuma, and as much as I'll miss it I couldn't go there now."

"Even if there is a jewel shard in Satsuma, Toyohisa-san?" Kagome asked as she finally came over to them. Her cheeks went a bright pink as she met his gaze and she immediately looked away from him. She'd been doing _that_ since they had left the field where the well was.

"That's different, Kagome-san. Of course I'd go to Satsuma if we needed to, but as it stands I have no reason to go. My place is with you." He blinked as Kagome's face went from pink to red at his words then tilted his head slightly. "You're awfully red, Kagome-san, are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine! Everything is fine!" She looked anywhere else but at him, her voice oddly sharp and higher than before.

"That's funny, because you smell awfully embarrassed," InuYasha taunted from where Kagome had left him on the ground. He had propped himself up and was looking at her, a shit-eating grin on his face. "It also smells like you-"

"Osuwari!" Kagome whirled on the Hanyou as his face was slammed into the ground with the subjugation command, her hands balled at her sides. "I am fine! There is nothing wrong with how I smell!"

"Hey now," Toyohisa crooned out as he came up behind Kagome and slid his arms around her waist. She went rigid immediately, and he had no doubt her face was still quite red. "Are you sure that you're okay? You seem quite flustered."

"Come along, InuYasha. We should go see to the village," Kaede instructed as she shuffled past them.

"I don't see what the fuss is all about," the Hanyou grumbled as he got up from the ground and brushed himself off. "All I was going to say was… Oh." InuYasha looked their way with a knowing smirk, amber eyes glittering with amusement. "Have fun you two," he remarked salaciously.

Toyohisa shot the Hanyou's retreating back an icy glare for possibly making the matter worse. He waited for InuYasha and Kaede to leave, mindful of the young Miko stock still in his arms the entire time, then dipped his head down and pressed his cheek against her hair once they were alone. "Tell me what's wrong, Kagome."

"It'll sound ridiculous," she finally responded after a long moment, and at the same time all of the tension seemed to leave her body. Her shoulders sagged almost unnoticeably and she twisted around in his arms. Her face was still a dark red and the color wasn't fading any as she looked up at him.

"Just tell me anyways," he insisted with a gentle smile. Surely it wasn't anything bad.

Kagome's expression froze over for an instant and then she forced herself to smile. "I-it's nothing, really, but I just remembered that I forgot my history book! So I should head back and grab it!" Her voice pitched upwards just slightly as she spoke and she managed to slip out from his grasp, all while waving her arms in front of herself. "I'll be right back!" And then she was gone.

Toyohisa blinked at the weirdness of Kagome's response and the sudden change in her demeanor, then frowned as he followed after her at a jog. By the time he reached the clearing he could see the light of the well's telltale glow fading, signifying that she had already gone through and meaning that she had run the entire way. While he could wait on this side of the well he wasn't comfortable with Kagome being out of his sight. If youkai were around now, who was to say that they weren't around in the future.

His impatience made it feel like the trip to Kagome's time took even longer than usual, and he had to look up to make sure there wasn't a star strewn sky above him. The relief he felt at the sight of the wooden beams making up the well-house's roof was incomparable to any other feeling at that moment, and it was very quickly ruined as he found himself getting dragged out of the well.

"Man, you are fucking obtuse…and I can't let that stand since it's an insult to myself."


	4. Like Morning Follows Night

Not only had he been dragged out of the well, he had been stripped of his weapons without even realizing it. The unscrupulous nature of this assault angered him, yet he was at the utter mercy of the perpetrator who had hold of him by both his short jacket and his shitagi.

"Calm yourself, whelp. You're perfectly safe with me since I have a personal interest in your survival, and believe me, it's very personal," came a voice that shockingly sounded like his own.

Toyohisa was unceremoniously dumped onto the paved stones of the Higurashi Shrine's courtyard while his assailant walked several paces away from him. He pushed himself up to his feet, his anger still coursing through him, only to freeze at the impossible sight that greeted him.

"Right now you're thinking I'm some sort of imposter, and I know this because **I** thought the very same thing when I was standing where you are," his lookalike informed him with a sharp grin. "So let me spell it out, I **am** you after five hundred years, and a change or two."

"How?! You can't expect me to believe a single word you're saying when everything that comes out of your mouth is unbelievable! Say something that makes sense, damn you!" He balled his hands up at his sides as he glared at his imposter. So what if he was unarmed! He launched himself at the imposter with the intention to beat him into submission and extract the truth, only to quickly find himself on his back with the imposter looming over him.

"I don't have time for this, much less the patience for it. You want proof, then fine! On the day you were born a visiting Lord and his wife presented to your father a blade, the one you now carry, that would be given to you after your first battle. When you were seven you tried using the sword without permission and ended up cutting yourself quite badly. You were saved from the embarrassment of revealing what happened by a passing Miko who healed the wound and helped you clean up the blood."

No one else was supposed to know about that incident. It was something he had fully intended to take to his grave, yet this…person claiming to be him knew about it. The rational part of his brain didn't want to believe it to be true, yet he did believe it. His expression must have given something away, because his future self chuckled.

"Mind shattering, I know. Been there, done that. You'll get over it quick enough," his future self said with a wave of his hand and stepped away to let him up. "Now, on to the reason why I'm having this conversation with you. Kagome is _completely_ inexperienced when it comes to intimate relationships, and she wanted to take things slowly, or did you completely forget that when you decided to kiss her?"

Toyohisa sat up with a scowl, but any irritation he felt towards his future self was abandoned for the shock and realization his words brought. It suddenly clicked why Kagome's behavior had changed so abruptly, and he had been too self-absorbed to notice it.

"Like I said, you're fucking obtuse, but now that you've realized what the issue is you can do something about it. Thankfully your _blunder_ works in your favor, though it might take Kagome a while to act normal around you again. What you need to do is take things slow, like baby steps. Talk to her, tell her about yourself, learn more about _her_ , and when you **do** kiss her again make sure you give her a proper kiss." His future self gave a meaningful grin, one that revealed his inhumanly sharp canines.

"Ne, Tou-san, you sure you should be telling him all of that? Kaa-san will be mad if she finds out," a child's voice stated flatly from behind him.

Toyohisa felt like he'd been punched in the gut, as all the air in his lungs was suddenly gone. He twisted around, jaw slack and his eyes wide, to take in the sight of what looked to be a nearly twelve year old boy.

The child had a striking resemblance to himself, but instead of the crimson marks that adorned his future self's cheeks the boy had pale lilac ones, and his eyes were a very familiar shade of blue. He wore a plain, dark blue yukata with a light gold obi, and in his arms were Toyohisa's weapons. Not only that, a stark white bow was slung across his back along with a quiver full of arrows.

"It's fine, pup, and your mother doesn't need to hear about this."

"Then I get Ketsueki if you kick it," the boy monotoned with a sharp glint in his eyes.

"Like hell I'd ever die, you damn brat! You're several hundred years too young to be making demands like that!" His future self raged, while the boy merely looked on in amusement. He calmed down after a moment and gave a long sigh. "Get back home before your mother starts to worry. She doesn't need to be stressed out any further in her condition."

"You're the reason she gets so stressed out, Tou-san," the boy stated rather plainly. His gaze flicked down to Toyohisa and he seemed to study him, his head cocking to one side much like a dog's. "You'll have to suffice." With those words the boy vanished from where he stood, only to reappear by the entrance to the well-house where he set down Toyohisa's weapons as well as the bow and quiver of arrows. He vanished again, this time for good, leaving Toyohisa alone with his future self.

"I…have a son?" It felt so surreal, yet he knew that this wasn't a dream otherwise it would have been too cruel. He turned back around to face his future self, all but dazed at the news that he had a kid. A son.

"And two older daughters, then there's the twins on the way, but that's all too telling. You needn't concern yourself about kids just yet. Kagome is _your_ priority, and I shouldn't have to say it, but don't even think of mentioning any of this to her. She has the Shikon no Tama to worry about. Make sure to give her that bow…and try to not die on her." A sharp, meaningful smile was given and then his future self was gone.

The reason for the abrupt departure quickly became evident as the sound of light steps echoed on the paved stones behind him. He didn't have to turn to know it was Kagome, her steps faltering just a little as she caught sight of him. "I thought I'd come and wait for you."

 _Displaced in Time_

Kagome hadn't expected that Toyohisa would follow after her, but it certainly made sense that he would. Overprotective was quite an accurate descriptor for the samurai. "Thank you for that," she responded with a faint blush while he stood up and turned towards her. There was something different about his expression, a certain kind of softness to it that made her her stomach twist in that nervous yet pleasant way. It reminded her of that affectionate gaze that the Inu Daiyoukai had given her.

"I managed to find a bow and some arrows for you." Toyohisa motioned over towards the well-house where his swords and tanegashima were leant up against the outer wall. Stood up next to them was a pure white recurve bow and a black quiver completely filled with arrows.

To say that she was amazed was an understatement. Words could barely describe her awe as she went over to the bow and picked it up. It barely weighed anything at all, and the grip was a perfect match to her hand. "Oh wow, this is amazing, Toyohisa!" Her earlier embarrassment forgotten, if only temporarily, she pivoted on her heel and launched herself at Toyohisa.

He caught her on reflex, though he seemed a little surprised with her reaction, but happy nonetheless. "I'm glad you like it, Kagome." His smile was warm and that soft expression lingered for a moment before it shifted and became hesitant. "I must ask for your forgiveness, Kagome. I overstepped my bounds earlier with that kiss, and placed you in an awkward position."

Kagome pulled away as her face warmed at the mention of the kiss and she averted her gaze. "It's not something you need to apologize or ask forgiveness for, given the extreme emotional duress you were under, but I do forgive you for it."

"Extreme what?" Toyohisa frowned at her choice of words, and she could see that the phrase was probably too modern for him to grasp.

"You were upset," Kagome elaborated with a shy smile and met his gaze again. "And reacted accordingly. It's not something to fault you for, but I do need some time to sort myself out."

"Take as much time as you need, Kagome." He gave her another smile then went around her and collected his weapons.

"Y-yeah. Thanks." She blushed again and followed after Toyohisa to collect her quiver of arrows. Upon picking it up she realized that there was something tucked in amongst the arrows, and she pulled free three items that vaguely resembled gloves.

"Those yugake are well made," Toyohisa observed as he peered at them from over her shoulder. "May I see them?"

"Sure," Kagome answered and turned to place them in Toyohisa's outstretched hand. "So what exactly are they for?"

"This is an oshidegake and is worn on your bow hand while you're still acclimating to using a bow. It will help protect your wrist and thumb from the arrow and fletching," he explained and held up the single digit piece of leather. "The shitagake, this cloth one, is worn under the yotsugake to help protect the leather from sweat and to keep it from degrading, and these are worn on your draw hand. The yotsugake gives you a better grip for bows with a higher draw weight."

"Wow, you know so much!" Kagome near gushed out enthusiastically after he finished going over the purpose for each glove.

"Well, I know the gear itself because I use yugake as well," he corrected with a grin and held up his right hand to show his gloved fingers. "Yugake aren't exclusive to archery, but I did grow up watching my mother prepare to go out hunting with the other Shimazu women. They're excellent hunters and quite proficient with the bow. As for these yugake, the quality of the material and craftsmanship far exceeds anything I've seen in my time. They will last a long time with proper care."

"Then I'll have to practice every day so I can live up to those standards," Kagome stated, purposefully avoiding the issue of how Toyohisa had come by the very modern gloves and quiver. She could already guess as to what had probably happened, though not the extent of it. "We really should head back through the well," she added as she slipped the quiver on, which had turned out to be a belt quiver, and then slung the bow across her back. It fitted neatly over her backpack and a gentle tug on it proved that it would be easy to remove.

"I'm almost surprised the _dog_ hasn't come looking for us," Toyohisa commented dryly and gave the gloves back. "What's his issue?"

"It's complicated, but I rather be the one to explain it," Kagome began as she led the way into the well-house. "So the time the well leads to is 1497, which you know, but fifty years before that there was a Miko named Kikyou who was in charge of safeguarding the Shikon no Tama. I don't know all of the details, and Kaede didn't seem to know much of how they met either, but she did meet and befriend Inuyasha. Something went wrong though, and Inuyasha attacked the village for the jewel, and he even mortally wounded Kikyou in the process. After she pinned him to the Goshinboku with a sealing arrow she instructed Kaede to burn the jewel with her remains."

She placed her hands on the lip of the well and stared down into its depths while Toyohisa stood next to her, his expression contemplative. "I'm apparently Kikyou's reincarnation, and I was born with the Shikon no Tama _inside_ of my body. I didn't know that, however, until after I was pulled down the well by a revived centipede youkai when I came down here looking for my cat three days ago. Coincidentally it was my birthday. I never imagined I would spend it trying to not get myself killed, first with the villagers who thought me to be a foreigner, then with the centipede youkai which came after me again for the jewel and tore it out of my side, and then Inuyasha who I freed because the centipede youkai _ate_ the Shikon no Tama, transformed and kept regenerating because of the jewel. That's what led to Kaede putting the beads of subjugation on him. When I tried to leave to come home the first time, which was yesterday, a group of bandits kidnapped me on orders from their leader who was being used by a shibugarasu that was after the jewel. It also ate the jewel, transformed and then I spectacularly failed at trying to shoot it out of the sky. It was my first time picking a bow, and Inuyasha expected me to have Kikyou's mastery over it. I only hit it because I tied one of its severed legs to my next arrow, because it was regenerating too, and _that_ is how the jewel ended up getting shattered."

"So he blames you for not being Kikyou," Toyohisa concluded with a scowl. "I don't care if you're her reincarnation or not, you're Kagome and _that_ is what I care about. Forget about Kikyou and what she could do, otherwise you'll just limit yourself."

"Just be myself," she added with a sincere smile then vaulted herself into the well before Toyohisa had a chance to react. The transitional glow of the well enveloped her as she fell, and once her feet touched the packed earth in Sengoku Jidai she immediately began to climb out. She was only halfway through her climb when the bottom of the well lit up beneath her, so she glanced down to watch as Toyohisa appeared with a scowl.

 _Displaced in Time_

"I can walk, you know," Kagome grumbled from her position in his arms with her head tucked under his chin. Just from her tone alone he could tell that she was pouting, which was just fine with him.

"Twice now you've gone ahead on your own, which in turn makes it more difficult for me to keep you safe," he chastised, his voice firm. "And after what you just told me before you brazenly jumped into the well I'm disinclined to let you out of my sight indefinitely."

"What if I need to get cleaned up or change my clothes? There will be times when I need a certain amount of privacy and that can't happen if you're going to be watching me all of the time," Kagome argued.

"You'll get the privacy you need in those situations so long as you don't go out of hearing range." And by that he meant his own hearing range, not hers and definitely not Inuyasha's. While he was certain the Inu Hanyou had a greater range of hearing, he did not trust him one bit with Kagome's safety and well-being. "So where's this village at?"

Kagome shifted in his arms to take in their surroundings then pointed in the direction he'd been heading in. "We're almost at Goshinboku and the village is just a ways past that."

"Then we should probably pick up the pace," Toyohisa murmured as a grin spread across his face. With a slight tightening of his grasp on Kagome he pushed off into a dead run. The trees blurred as he followed the barely visible path, and for several minutes the forest just seemed to go on until it finally thinned. They burst through the line of trees and out into where it opened up into the valley that the village was nestled in.

"It isn't much, but this is Edo," Kagome stated softly as he came to a halt on the path leading up to the village. There was a field to their right and beyond it, bordering a hill that the forest they had just left was encroaching upon, were a couple of houses. Ahead of them was the rest of the village, a few more homes and a storage house, while to their left was an expanse of paddy fields.

"Where is everyone?" Even though night had fallen only a small while ago there should have been a few of the men outside, not to mention someone on watch. With a frown he set Kagome down and scanned the houses.

"That youkai from earlier probably attacked the village in search of the jewel. Kaede-san was injured when we found her." Kagome walked ahead of him by a few paces then turned and looked back at him expectantly. "Toyohisa-san?"

"She didn't seem too distressed when we found her, so the villagers probably didn't suffer any losses," he commented as he followed after Kagome.

"'Bout time you two showed up," Inuyasha called from ahead of them as he leapt down from the closest rooftop and essentially blocked their path.

"I went home to get my history book, Inuyasha," Kagome responded casually as she swept past the Inu Hanyou. "Toyohisa-san also found a bow and a quiver of arrows for me."

"The hell's a book?" One of Inuyasha's ears flicked back as he turned to follow Kagome with his gaze.

"And why do you need to know? You've been nothing but rude and disrespectful since _I_ met you, and not to mention what Kagome told me about how the two of you _met_. She stopped me from killing you once, but like she said back in her time, she will not stop me again." He stood at his full height as he stared Inuyasha down, the Hanyou having whirled around to glare at him with his ears laid back.

"You caught me by surprise then, that doesn't mean that you'd stand a chance against me now or ever, human," Inuyasha growled out and flexed his clawed fingers while he shifted his stance. "Even with that sword you wouldn't stand a chance."

"Is that so?" As much as he disliked raising his blade against someone unarmed or with no obvious weapon, there was something about the way the Hanyou had said it. Toyohisa wasn't one to back down from a fight, and Inuyasha seemed keen on having one. His gaze briefly flicked in Kagome's direction, the Miko watching them with a faint frown.

"I'm not getting in the middle of this, so if you two want to fight then go ahead. _You_ better come back to me in one piece, Toyohisa." As much as she tried to hide it, there was a certain amount of worry to Kagome's tone and posture.

"He'll be dead when I'm through with him," Inuyasha snarled out and threw himself forwards. "And once I've put his heart in your hands I'm going to kill you next, you no good bitch!"

Toyohisa leapt back as dirt and rock flew up from the long furrows that Inuyasha's attack produced. He drew his nodachi and pivoted on his heel, blocking another strike from the Hanyou on the draw as he came straight through the plume of dust and debris of his initial attack. It produced a sound of metal on metal, though Inuyasha used only his claws.

The Hanyou was fast, Toyohisa would admit that much, but he was just as fast and his skills were finely honed while InuYasha's were crude. That difference made itself apparent as he slid back towards the Hanyou almost immediately and slashed at him with an upward diagonal strike. It would have cut straight through Inuyasha had he not leapt back at the last second, instead leaving him with a fairly deep score across his chest.

Shock and disbelief bloomed across Inuyasha's face at the injury, as though he had expected a completely different result. It lasted only for a second, and instead of retreating the Hanyou swiped a hand through the wound to coat his fingers with blood. He feinted to Toyohisa's left, changing direction at the very last second to slash at his back with the blood-covered claws.

No pain came, though he could feel the impact of an attack, and when he whirled around with a horizontal strike that aimed to kill Inuyasha, because surely this would end with one of them dying, the Hanyou had already leapt out of range. "What's the matter? You seemed so certain you could kill me when you can't even wound me!"

Inuyasha growled, his fangs bared while his ears were laid flat against his skull, and seemed to reassess Toyohisa. First the sword that had cut him, and then the armor that had stopped his attack. Something seem to click because Inuyasha lunged straight at him again despite the difference in their skills. Another metallic clang rang out as the Hanyou blocked his strike with the claws of his right hand and delivered a punch to his gut with his left.

Not only did Toyohisa get the wind knocked out of him, but Inuyasha took it a step further and grabbed the nodachi by its blade to wrench it from his grasp as the Hanyou leapt back. The distance between them was more than enough that Inuyasha now held the advantage, especially since he also had Toyohisa's nodachi within his grasp. Well, he wasn't completely unarmed.

"Where'd a human like you get a Daiyoukai blade?" The question was spat out as Inuyasha scrutinized the sword, now holding it properly by the hilt. "And fire-rat fur armor?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, dog, and I really don't care one way or the other. I'm going to send your soul straight to hell," Toyohisa ground out as he drew his wakizashi and tanegashima. "Now prepare to die!"

Inuyasha's eyes glinted maliciously in the moonlight and he leapt forward at the exact same time Toyohisa did. Instead of using a slashing strike, the Hanyou instead opted for a straightforward lunge with all of his weight behind the attack. The path of the nodachi was undeterred and it struck true, piercing straight through the protections of whatever the strange fire-rat armor, as Inuyasha called it, offered and right through his heart.

There was a brief, sharp feeling of pain, a strange pulse and then everything went black as someone screamed.


	5. Zakuro

_July 1577 – Late at Night_

"There you go, Shimazu-san, all healed up," the Miko chirped with a brilliantly warm smile as she pulled her hands away from his left calf, the pale pink-white glow enveloping them fading.

"It's gone!" Houjumaru exclaimed as he prodded at the now flawless skin where the bone deep wound had been. Even the blood was gone without a trace, but the cut in his hakama was still there.

"Ne, Shimazu-san, would you like to see a neat trick?" The Miko gave him a gentler smile and reached her hand out to touch the damaged fabric of his hakama. Right before his eyes the fabric knit itself back together, almost as if by magic. "Now no one will know that anything happened."

"You mean that?" If there had been one thing he hadn't been looking forward to, it was telling his father that he had touched _the sword_ without first earning it.

"It will be our little secret, Shimazu-san," the Miko said with a fondness in her sapphire blue eyes.

"All finished with the whelp, beloved?" The voice that spoke was low and smooth, filled with a tenderness as the speaker addressed the Miko. It belonged to the person that loomed over him, casting a shadow over both himself and his pretty savior.

"You're so impatient, dear husband," the Miko chided with an exasperated roll of her eyes. "You _always_ have been." There was a meaning to her words that escaped him, and really he was now far more interested in the man that had shown up.

Houjumaru twisted around where he still sat and craned his neck to get a look at the man. Sharp gray eyes met his own, brilliant streaks of red marking the cheeks just under them, lending the man a much more frightening appearance.

"And you're not, beloved?" The man's gaze flicked towards the Miko while a smirk teased the corners of his mouth upwards. "You're as bad as I am when it comes to patience or need I remind you of the follies of _your_ youth?"

"Says the idiot that nearly died twice the first day I met him," the Miko muttered under her breath. "I'll take my leave now, _husband_. Take care, Shimazu-san." She got up without so much as a rustle of fabric and left the darkened back courtyard.

"Well, that's me in the doghouse for the night," the man said aloud with a grim smile as the Miko slipped through the opening of the gate leading out to village streets. Once she was gone the man crouched down, his expression turning serious. "You're much too young to be handling _that_ sword, whelp. Put it back exactly how you found it and don't speak of this to anyone, okay?"

Houjumaru frowned at the reprimand but nodded, as it had already been his intention from the start. Cutting himself with the heavy nodachi had been an unexpected disaster, and had the Miko not passing by at that exact moment…

"You're thinking too much on it, whelp. It happened, you were saved. No need to fret over it anymore." The man cracked a slight smile and casually reached over to ruffle his hair. "My wife has a tendency to be at exactly the right place at precisely the right time. Make sure you find yourself a girl like that, and hold on tight to her. She'll be worth dying for."

Houjumaru ducked his head away from the man's overly familiar gesture and made a face. "I don't care about girls, and I'm not scared of dying."

"Oh, you'll change your tune one day, whelp." The man gave a low chuckle and looked back in the direction of the gate. "But you're right about one thing…Shimazu don't fear death, we embrace it each time we rush onto the battlefield."

"You're part of the clan?" Houjumaru frowned slightly as he took in the man's kosode, which lacked any sign of the Shimazu crest that each member of his clan wore with pride.

"Indeed I am," the man replied with a cheeky grin as he returned his attention to Houjumaru. "That's not what's important here though. Just do as I said with the nodachi, and don't try to use it again until it's given to you by your father. You'll earn it soon enough, and when you do you'll be ready for it."

"And when will that be?" Houjumaru's question was met with another chuckle.

"That depends on you, whelp. Now, as much as I'd like to stay and answer any further questions I have a wife to console and a daughter to get back home to. I will leave you with a bit of advice, though…" The man lifted a hand and touched his index finger over Houjumaru's heart, his expression serious. "There's two things you'll need to remember when the time comes: You must first die in order to be reborn and, most importantly, with your dying breath you must utter the phrase 'Awaken and burn through me, Ketsueki.'."

"What?" That wasn't really the kind of advice he was expecting, and it was strange advice to receive.

"Just trust me on this, okay? When the memory of this conversation passes from your mind and finally comes back to you, it will be the right time." The man pulled his hand away then stood and turned his back to Houjumaru. "Now get going, Shimazu _Toyohisa_."

 _October 26_ _th_ _, 1497_

"Awaken…and burn through me…Ketsueki…"

 _Displaced in Time_

She stood there, rooted to the spot, all conscious thought gone as Toyohisa slumped to his knees almost immediately, the wickedly long blade of his nodachi protruding from his back. That the fight would turn out like this…

Kagome was vaguely aware that someone was screaming, a wordless and broken sounding noise that pierced through the night and roused the tired, injured villagers from their homes. From the way her throat burned and ached the only possible conclusion was that she was the one screaming. The scream devolved into a grief-stricken wail interspersed with choking sobs as her legs gave out.

"Shut up, you stupid bitch!" Inuyasha snarled as he turned from Toyohisa's deathly still form, his ears pinned back against his skull. In the blink of an eye he was in front of her and in the next he struck her across the cheek.

The sharp blow sent her sprawling, pain blossoming across her cheek as she was shocked into silence. That she could have uttered a single word to keep the Hanyou in check was forgotten, and her eyes went wide with fear as she scrambled to get away from Inuyasha.

"Just _what_ do you think you're _doing_ to **my intended**?" Inuyasha froze at the softly spoken words that even she could barely hear, but hear them she did. Beyond the Hanyou Toyohisa slowly stood up, impossibly so. The sword was still very much run through him, but it was ensconced by a dark red glow. No, that wasn't quite right, the sword was _dissolving_ into a mist of blood that swirled around Toyohisa.

"You should be dead!" Inuyasha's accusatory statement was tinged with panic as he turned back to Toyohisa. The Hanyou took a step back, which put him closer to Kagome and a low, rage-filled growl echoed quite clearly across the area, making Inuyasha freeze yet again.

"Get **away** from _her_." The maelstrom of blood mist followed Toyohisa as he took a halting step forwards, and for some inexplicable reason it appeared to be thinning. His next step was more surefooted and quickly followed by another while the blood mist completely vanished.

Whether it was through his own will or not, Inuyasha moved away from her immediately and just as soon as he did Toyohisa was kneeling next to her. His touch was exceedingly gentle as he pulled her up to her knees and inspected her cheek. She whimpered and flinched away from the slight prod to the injured area, at which a murderous expression stole over Toyohisa's face, made even more frightening with the vivid red marks that now adorned his cheeks.

"Stay here." There was a hard edge to his tone despite how softly the order was given, and it was clearly an order. Toyohisa slowly stood up to turn and face Inuyasha who was frozen with fear a mere few feet away.

Inuyasha snapped out of his frozen state with an uneasy growl and bolted towards the forest like hell itself was after him. He barely made it ten feet from his starting position when Toyohisa exploded into motion and closed the distance between himself and the Hanyou much faster than Kagome could track. Dirt and rock sprayed upwards, hiding them from sight, followed by a pained yelp and a low, snarling growl.

"Kagome! What happened child?" Kaede called out as she hurried over to where Kagome was still kneeling on the ground.

Kagome pulled her gaze away from the fight, if it could even be call that anymore, and looked to Kaede, who was accompanied by a few men from the village. Her attempt to speak was only met with a sharp, searing pain that had her eyes watering so she did the only thing she could think of in that moment. She threw a hand up and motioned for them to stay back, which exactly none of them heeded.

As Kaede neared her she could apparently make out the swelling to Kagome's cheek by the light of the moon, and her face was drawn into a severe frown. "The bone appears to be broken," she assessed. "Help Kagome up and-"

A hoarse scream cut Kaede off, and diverted everyone's attention to where Toyohisa and Inuyasha were. At the end of a ten foot long furrow the samurai had the Hanyou pressed face down into the dirt, a knee pinning down Inuyasha's right arm by his shoulder joint. The scream had been from the Hanyou's humerus snapping in half as his arm was twisted towards his back.

"Is that… You must not kill Inuyasha!" Kaede's cry pulled Kagome's attention back to the elderly Miko while anger bubbled up in her at the plea for the Hanyou's life.

"He nearly killed Toyohisa, and he was going to kill _me_. Give _him_ a good reason as to why Inuyasha's life should be spared, because I ran out of them when he disparaged me in front of my family." Oh, it hurt to speak, but the pain wasn't as bad as it had been when Toyohisa had tested the injury barely even a minute ago. She sat straight-backed as she stared at Kaede in a direct challenge. "And it better not have anything to do with hunting down the Shikon no Kakera."

"I feared as much when he was revived. He hasn't changed one bit, and still poses a danger even with the beads of subjugation. Even so, he was freed by your hand, Kagome, thus he is your responsibility," Kaede stated grimly as she returned Kagome's stare.

"That's still not a reason as to why he should be spared," Kagome argued, her anger flaring again.

There came a thud and an anguished scream not too far from them, interrupting their heated discussion and drawing their attention to the dirty and injured form of Inuyasha. His face was mottled with bruises and smears of dirt, but worse yet was the way his arm was laid out at a completely wrong angle.

"In return for the kindness you and yours showed Kagome the last three days I will spare the dog's life, but do not mistake this as a generosity on my part. You will be responsible for him as the price for your request." There was a faint growl to Toyohisa's voice as he spoke, and the samurai approached them with a scowl on his face. His gaze went to the armed village men gathered behind Kaede, his expression darkening slightly at the sight of them.

"You will not be moved on the matter?" Kaede looked from Toyohisa to Kagome and back, her tone imploring.

"No," Kagome answered sharply as she slowly stood up. Her legs threatened to give out almost immediately, and she staggered back a step only to find that Toyohisa had moved to stand behind her. She leaned into him, despite how awkward her bow and backpack made it, while Kaede hung her head with a sigh.

"Very well, I will take responsibility for Inuyasha." The elderly Miko turned away from them and walked over to InuYasha's whimpering form. "Rikichi, please see to it that Inuyasha is taken to my hut so that I may treat his wounds. Leave him outside and place some hay to the side of the hut as a bed for him."

"Yes, Lady Kaede." One of the men stepped forwards, and Kagome recognized him as the man who had rallied the villagers together against Mistress Centipede. At his direction, the men gathered with him lifted Inuyasha up and carried him off towards Kaede's home, leaving them alone with the elderly Miko.

"You were human last we met, of that I am certain. How is it you are now a youkai, Shimazu-san?" Kaede asked without turning to face them, her tone weary. Kagome herself blinked at the question, the belated realization of what those red marks having appeared on the samurai's face meant finally striking home.

"I'm human," Toyohisa stated bluntly and factually, though it was ruined by the undertone of a growl.

"I might be old, but my senses are not failing me. You are most certainly a youkai, and an extremely powerful one at that," Kaede retorted and looked at Toyohisa from over her shoulder. "You've no idea of the change that has been wrought over you?" Her gaze slid down to Kagome, eyes narrowing at the look on her face. "You clearly seem to know, Kagome."

"I… His sword turned into blood…"

 _Displaced in Time_

She wasn't lying, he could tell that much from her scent and heart rate, but as he craned his neck and scanned the torn up path leading into the village behind them he noted that all of his weapons were accounted for. His wakizashi and tanegashima were still on the ground where they had slipped from his grasp, and impaled in the ground between them was his nodachi. He wasn't sure of what had happened himself, which led to him now being a youkai of all things, but he was certain that Kagome was not lying.

There was more to her scent that had Toyohisa pressing his nose into Kagome's hair and inhaling. A lingering bitterness and salt from her tears, a spiciness from her anger that was ebbing away, and an overall note of relief making up the greater portion of her emotions. Underneath that, she smelled of oranges, plums and a brewing summer storm.

"Um, Toyohisa, what are you doing?" Kagome's question did little to deter him as he shifted his attention from the Miko's hair to her neck.

"You smell good," he rumbled out and rubbed his nose against the skin just beneath Kagome's hairline.

"T-thank you, but we should probably get your weapons and head inside." The Miko pulled away from him, making him blink open his eyes with a disappointed sigh. She turned towards him, red-faced and her scent shifting to an interesting mix of embarrassment and happiness. The swelling in her cheek had reduced to nothing, and there was a faint odor that reminded him of lightning that radiated from where she had been injured. It smelled nothing like Inuyasha did, all traces of the Hanyou's scent gone from where he had struck her.

"I'll be just a moment," Toyohisa stated in a reassuring tone, at which Kagome gave him a faint smile, then went to retrieve his swords and matchlock gun.

"Do you know what manner of youkai Shimazu-san is, child?" Kaede asked in what sounded like a discreet tone.

"Oh, I do! He's an Inu Daiyoukai, which explains the growling and the, uh, sniffing." Kagome's answer made him pause with his hand over the nodachi's hilt, mouth drawn into a frown.

That he was anything relatable to Inuyasha made his skin crawl, yet Kagome had been perfectly at ease leaning up against him. She even knew… Wait, how did she know what he is when he himself didn't know?

Fingers closing around the nodachi's hilt, his frown deepened as he pulled the blade free. It felt much lighter than he remembered, and the color of the edge had gone from a pale gray to a deep red along the entire length. Everything else about the blade was exactly as he remembered it to be, from the feel of the grip in his hand to the light scent of the choji oil used in the maintenance of the blade.

He inspected the point of the blade for any damage and when none was found he slid the nodachi into its scabbard. His wakizashi and tanegashima were likewise put away then he took a moment to observe Kagome and Kaede from afar.

"Daiyoukai are very rare, very powerful and very dangerous. If he were to lose control of himself-"

"Toyohisa won't! Even though I've only known him for barely even half a day I **know** that he wouldn't lose control over himself!" There was a vehemence to her tone that had him wondering why he was even suspecting her. That she knew what he was would only serve to help him learn about what he was now capable of. It was a start, at least.

"The only person in danger of incurring my wrath upon them has been dealt with. If anything I would put this village under my protection, if it is needed," Toyohisa stated plainly as he returned to them, Kagome jumping slightly at his voice while Kaede seemed to consider his words.

"What would your protection of this village entail?" There was a gleam in the elderly Miko's eye, as though she were plotting something. Kaede motioned for them to follow after her and led the way over to her hut.

"I won't be taking control of the village from the Daimyou, which, if memory serves, would be the current head of the Takeda. I can only offer protection against youkai, bandits and raiders, as I have no desire to be a leader. I'm a brat of the battlefield and there is only one other place that I would rather be when I'm not in the midst of a fight." His gaze went to Kagome, the young Miko walking a few steps ahead of him, who blushed and once again gave off that mixed scent of embarrassment and happiness at the implication of his words.

"That will have to suffice," Kaede responded then paused as they reached her hut. "I should see to Inuyasha's arm and set the bone otherwise it will need to be rebroken. It will take but a few minutes so wait here, even if you intend to wed one another we don't want to have tongues wagging." With that said Kaede shuffled off to the side of her home that Rikichi had relocated Inuyasha to.

"How are you feeling?" Kagome faced him, worry etched into her expression as she looked him over. Her scent twisted with a note of sourness that made his nose wrinkle.

"I feel fine." Better than fine, actually. He felt alive for what honestly felt like the first time in his life, and energized.

"And your…wound?" There was a hesitation in her voice as she asked that question while he frowned.

By every right he should be dead, considered where he's been stabbed. A cursory inspection, a simple press of his fingers over his heart, made it clear that there was no wound to speak of. "Gone."

Kagome took a faltering step towards him then halted and looked around, uncertainty weighing heavily on her, and most likely Kaede's words.

"Damn the villagers and what they'll say, come here." Yes, it went against every tradition, even his own, but so had their day thus far. There wasn't going to be anything normal about their relationship.

Kagome all but collided with him and gave a soft whimper as fresh tears filled her eyes. His arms reflexively wrapped around her and he lowered his face to rub his jaw along the top of her head while she trembled against him. She flinched when a sharp yelp of pain, Inuyasha's, pierced the quiet and she clung to his shitagi with a tight grasp.

"Hey now, it's okay. I'm okay," he whispered out and pulled back just enough to look down at her. "Look at me, Kagome."

"You were stabbed through the **heart** , Toyohisa, and I don't know how you survived _that_ , but I can't sit here and abide by these ancient traditions. I can't, because I want to fuss over you, and not leave your side and…oh." A look of realization stole over her face as her words faltered and despite her tears and the way her scent was overwhelmingly sad she smiled. "We could still take things slow even if we were to get married right away?"

The solution to their problem was so utterly simplistic and fell in line with the very traditions they had been ready to curse. There was only one answer he could give. "Of course." And there was only one question he could ask. "Higurashi Kagome, would you take up the Shimazu name and become my wife?"

 _Displaced in Time_

"Otou-sama and Okaa-sama would kill us if they knew we snuck through the well," the younger of his older sisters commented as they watched the much younger versions of their parents pull apart at Kaede's return. "Oh, I wish we were closer. I know this is where Otou-sama asked Okaa-sama to marry him."

"You already know she says yes, Haru. No need to personally hear it, besides, we don't want Oyaji to realize we're here," his eldest sister commented.

"How can you be like that, Mitsuru? It's such a romantic moment!" Haru sighed and kicked at a cloud with a pout. "You agree with me, right Souma?"

"I want to get this done with so I can go back home and play video games. I don't care about romance, I'm only 119." He gave his sisters a flat stare then glanced back down to find that their parents had gone inside of the hut with Kaede. "We have until dawn to set everything up, and we need to be quiet."


End file.
